Technology news

Photo by Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images for Tribeca Film Festival Clayton Christensen, the business scholar who coined the term “disruptive innovation,” died at a Boston hospital this week, the Deseret News reports. He was 67. You may not immediately recognize his name, but the tech industry — and every resulting industry — is built on the framework of technology disruption and innovation that Christensen devised.The crux of Christensen’s theory is that big, successful

President Donald Trump on Friday revealed the official logo for the Space Force, the newest branch of the armed forces and part of the existing United States Air Force department, in a tweet.The Space Force, a fixation of Trump’s throughout his presidency, became a reality last month when Congress passed a $738 billion military bill that created the sixth branch of the military. And now the Air Force is responsible for branding, uniform design, and the various other requirements involved w

Photo by Maverick Asio/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images Your risk of catching the new coronavirus is probably low if you haven’t recently been to Wuhan, China (where the virus originated) or been in contact with people who were there recently. But you might still be anxious about the spread of the virus.That’s perfectly normal, says Jane Timmons-Mitchell, associate professor in the department of psychiatry at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine — and

Photo by Hunter Martin/Getty Images Video game publisher Activision Blizzard has entered into a multi-year partnership with Google that will see the search giant’s cloud platform power all of Activision Blizzard’s game hosting and other technical needs. But more importantly, as part of the deal, YouTube will become the exclusive streaming partner for all of the game publisher’s big e-sports titles, including the upcoming season of the Overwatch League and the Call of Duty Leag

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge So you’re the owner of a brand-new Fitbit Versa or Ionic smartwatch. Congratulations!If you’ve never used a smartwatch before, you may be (understandably) overwhelmed. If you swipe left from the home screen, you’ll see that there are dozens of different things to click on: Spotify, Wallet, Weather, and more.But those apps are only a fraction of what Fitbit has to offer. There are hundreds of third-party apps available for your smartw

The Yoto Player, a connected speaker for kids, has more in common with old-school cassette players than smart speakers like Amazon Echo or Google Home devices. It deliberately doesn’t have a microphone, camera, or a screen — it’s really just designed to play audio, but through NFC-enabled physical cards. Inspired by Montessori teachings that emphasize tactile learning and encourage kids to have a level of independence, the cards are loaded with songs, audiobooks, and podcasts t

Photo by Natt Garun / The Verge Fitbit is probably one of the best-known brands of smartwatches / fitness trackers next to the Apple Watch, and its range of wearables offers something for every kind of health enthusiast. If you want to get started with a fitness band that won’t over-extend your budget, Fitbit has a large selection that’s especially well-suited for those who are new to wearables.
In fact, Fitbit offers a variety of fitness bands in various form factors: there’s

Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge Google is backtracking on a controversial search engine redesign, announcing today that it will experiment with some elements of the new look in response to user feedback.Google made one of the biggest changes to how it displays search results in the company’s history earlier this month, with the changes taking effect over the course of the last week. It involved a visual overhaul that makes it more difficult to differentiate between advertising and o

The Vergecast is back in the studio to talk about the location of math. The Verge’s Nilay Patel, Dieter Bohn, and Paul Miller are joined by Russell Brandom to dig into the issues surrounding encryption on the iPhone, the Jeff Bezos phone hack, and more.A big theme this week is a lot of people realizing things about technology that seemed like changes but, in fact, were not. Apple’s system for what is and isn’t accessible on iCloud and iMessage backups hasn’t changed, but

Aurora, the self-driving car company founded by former Waymo engineer Chris Urmson, doesn’t do dog and pony shows. It doesn’t trot out its vehicles just to prove they exist or take journalists for test drives to demonstrate that the technology actually works. In fact, in the three years since Aurora launched, the public has heard very little about how Aurora plans to compete against Waymo, Ford, and General Motors.After months of announcements — the company acquired a LIDAR sen

Photo: Call of Duty League The Minneapolis Armory was home to the Lakers during the ‘50s, later became the site of iconic Prince and Aerosmith music videos, and in 1985, was designated to the US’s National Register of Historic Places. This weekend, however, it’ll be the scene for something very different: a glimpse at the future of professional Call of Duty.
It all starts on Friday evening when the Chicago Huntsmen take on the Dallas Empire in the very first match of the fledg

Illustration by Alex Castro / Th Clearview AI, an artificial intelligence firm providing facial recognition technology to US law enforcement, may be overstating how effective its services are in catching terrorist suspects and preventing attacks, according to a report from BuzzFeed News.The company, which gained widespread recognition from a New York Times report published earlier this month, claims it was instrumental in identifying a New York suspect from video footage who had placed three ri

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Sony and Microsoft’s next-gen consoles are both expected to launch later this year, and developers are gearing up with new games. According to GDC’s new annual survey, developers are more likely to be working on a game for the PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X, previously known as Project Scarlett, than game streaming services like Google Stadia and Project xCloud.In the entertainment industry, streaming is bigger than its ever been; the streaming wars

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge A new hands-on video from XDA Developers has given us our best look yet at Android’s upcoming AirDrop-style sharing feature called Nearby Sharing. The video of the unannounced feature shows a number of photos and a video file being sent between a Pixel 2 XL and a Pixel 4, although XDA notes that the feature has also been seen working on a OnePlus device.
Despite how useful AirDrop is, so far, Android has struggled to find much success with its own a

Photo by HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP via Getty Images A second US case of the new coronavirus has been confirmed in a patient in Chicago, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported today. The female patient had recently returned from Wuhan, China, and did not have symptoms when she arrived in the US. When she developed symptoms, she reported them to a doctor.There have been 63 suspected cases of the coronavirus under investigation in the US, the CDC said during a press conference. Of

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge The Beats Solo Pro are $50 off at Best Buy, taking the price down to $249.99. This matches the lowest price we’ve seen yet. And to our knowledge, this is only the second time they’ve been discounted. If you haven’t read our review, these are the best Beats headphones yet, according to The Verge’s Chris Welch, with a noise cancellation effect and sound quality that are inarguably great.Those gifted with large noggins, be warned: you might

Image: Epic Games The long road to season 2 is almost over. Today, Epic Games revealed the release date for the second season of Fortnite Chapter 2, which will launch on February 20th. The disruptive Chapter 2 — which introduced a brand-new island, following a days-long black hole event — first debuted in October. That makes this, by far, Fortnite’s longest season to date. Epic says that, over the next few weeks, players can expect more overtime challenges as well as “a

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Content moderators for YouTube are being ordered to sign a document acknowledging that performing the job can cause post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), according to interviews with employees and documents obtained by The Verge. Accenture, which operates a moderation site for YouTube in Austin, Texas, distributed the document to workers on December 20th — four days after The Verge published an investigation into PTSD among workers at the facility.

When you think of Sega’s adorable, punky blue-haired Sonic the Hedgehog, do you think of Wiz Khalifa, Lil Yachty, Sueco the Child, and Ty Dolla Sign? You will now.The quartet teamed up for a new song, “Speed Me Up,” which ties into Paramount Pictures’ upcoming live-action Sonic the Hedgehog movie. I don’t want to oversell this video, but it is, quite frankly, art. The music video opens with Wiz Khalifa blowing into a Sonic game cartridge for the Sega Genesis —

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Google’s most recent phones, the Pixel 3A and Pixel 4, are discounted and include a free (generous) gift card with purchase at a few retailers. Neither amounts to the lowest price that we’ve seen, but still, it’s another chance to get in on the savings if you missed out on the Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals.
Starting with Google’s more affordable phone, the Pixel 3A (shown above), a $50 discount brings it down to $349.99. You’

Preproduction on Lucasfilm’s highly anticipated Obi-Wan Disney+ series is delayed as the series grapples with script issues and lead writer Hossein Amini’s departure, according to Variety. The news, which was downplayed as minor by lead actor Ewan McGregor, comes as concerns about Star Wars’ future are brought into question following The Rise of Skywalker’s lukewarm release.
Numerous outlets reported that Obi-Wan was facing major rewrites to fix story issues. Sources told

The tool can be used to generate art in various styles, including the abstract artist Piet Mondrian (this is not a Generative Placeholder so stop clicking on it). | Image: Generative Placeholder Generative Placeholders is a new tool that lets you embed autogenerated placeholder art into a website that changes with every page refresh or click of the image. It only requires a brief bit of embedded code. The key word here is “placeholder,” which suggests that the tool’s creator,

In today’s digital age, it sometimes feels like hardware has taken a back seat to the software that drives our devices. Button of the Month will look at what some of those buttons and switches are like on devices old and new to appreciate how we interact with them on a physical, tactile level.
The Xbox 360 controller is considered to be one of the best video game controllers ever made — except for one thing: the D-pad. It’s conversely one of the worst directional inputs ever pu

Image: Mighty Bear Games Apple Arcade has so far been a great repository for polished, offbeat indie games that are best explored when you have some quiet time and perhaps no internet connection.The latest entry into the iOS subscription game service is different. It’s a flashy multiplayer battle royale shooter, kind of like Fortnite — except it’s more kid-friendly, with a food fight theme instead of guns and bullets and a top-down design that gives it the look and feel of cla

Image: The Verge/Alex Castro DirecTV fears that one of its satellites in orbit might blow up soon, and it’s gearing up to move it to safety. Due to a problem with the satellite’s batteries, the satellite might burst apart at the end of February. If it did explode while in its current orbit, there's a chance it could damage active satellites nearby, which is why the company would like to get it out of the way.
The satellite on the verge of bursting is Spaceway-1, a vehicle built by B

CCTV cameras on London’s Westminster Bridge.| Photo credit should read TOLGA AKMEN/AFP via Getty Images Live facial recognition cameras will be deployed across London, with the city’s Metropolitan Police announcing today that the technology has moved past the trial stage and is ready to be permanently integrated into everyday policing.The cameras will be placed in locations popular with shoppers and tourists, like Stratford’s Westfield shopping center and the West End, reports

Illustration by Alex Castro Happy Friday to you! I have been reflecting a bit on the controversy du jour: Google’s redesigned search results. Google is trying to foreground sourcing and URLs, but in the process it made its results look more like ads, or vice versa. Bottom line: Google’s ads just look like search results now.
I’m thinking about it because I have to admit that I don’t personally hate the new favicon -plus-URL structure. But I think that might be because I

You maniacs sold out our second-ever Interface live event, with Uncanny Valley author Anna Wiener, in record time. Thanks to everyone who bought a ticket, and we’ll look into finding a bigger venue for the next one. In the meantime, I’m looking forward to seeing a good number of you on February 4th!
The basic idea behind journalism is that there are things people don’t know that they should know, and that someone ought to go find the people who do know about the things and ask

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Samsung is developing its own alternative to Apple’s AirDrop file sharing service that will launch with the upcoming Galaxy S20, XDA Developers reports. Screenshots of the feature show that it will work similarly to AirDrop, allowing you to “share instantly with people nearby,” so long as their device has Quick Share turned on. You’ll also be able to restrict who can send you files to just people in your contacts, or else leave it

Two and a half years after Ikea first announced its collaboration with Swedish design collective Teenage Engineering, the products are going on sale. The Frekvens range (which translates to “frequency”) will be rolling out in US stores from today through February 1st, according to Ikea.
Teenage Engineering is best known for its music products like the iconic OP-1 synthesizer, so it’s no surprise that the Frekvens collection sees Ikea continue its expansion into the world of hom

Image: Rev Online transcription service Rev is raising its prices for the first time ever, from $1 a minute to $1.25. The price hike was disclosed in a message the company sent to Rev transcribers on Thursday outlining the change and assuring the contract workers that this is not expected to significantly impact the number of job orders available. The company, which has been around since 2010, is one of the leading online transcription services, and it made its name largely off its advertised $

Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge Google has just revealed that its next I/O developer conference will take place from May 12th to May 14th. The company revealed the date after users participated in its annual I/O teaser, which this year was a collaborative online game to restore a fictional satellite network.When the game was completed, the constellation of satellites spelled out the date. Image: Google
In a tweet, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said I/O 2020 will be at the Shoreline Amphitheatr